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WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required as is 20 years of participation in forums (not all true). Come here to have fun, be ready to be teased and not take online life too seriously. We now measure and review equipment for free! Click here for details.

Addicted to Fun and Learning

Hi I didn't see an amp suggestions thread. So I thought I'd post here. I would be quite interested in @amirm measuring the Emotiva Basx A-100 - especially for headphones.
If you haven't heard of it, it's a really interesting headphone/speaker amp that retails for around $200. What makes it unusual is that it has an extremely powerful headphone section which allows for huge amounts of power for headphone use. And why I'm requesting it is
1. They have a 30 day trial.
2. The headphone output can be changed. The stock configuration has dropping resistors in the circuit. This limits the power of the headphones on purpose for headphones that can be damaged. It also makes it less noisy subjectively. Where it gets interesting is that the user is allowed to bypass the resistors by means of an included jumper. This increases the noise floor but also provides huge amounts of power - for the appropriate headphones. I would be interested in the difference in measurements between the two configurations. Also if there is a way to simulate a difficult headphone load and an easy headphone mode and measure which mode performs better that would be great. I use it with my HD600 and I like it. But it's not without its faults - namely noise floor in resistor bypass mode.

As it happens I landed on the Z review guy's youtube video on this amp and using it with headphones without the voltage divider as you mention. Given the low price I am inclined to get it at some point and test.

Good deal. I just purchased some JBL 305P MKII over those new Adam budget models. Not sure what trickle down Harmon offers to JBL, but these are keepers for me. Only $324 and if I don't like, I can return within 45 days at Guitar Center. This is all due to downsizing recently and going minimalist--on purpose but also for reasons of my studio I live in. Let me know and I'll send it to you boxed and ready.

Member

Yes, you read the title right. If you have audio gear that you like to see objectively measured with professional equipment, we (I) may be interested in doing that for you and our readers.

There is so little objective data on equipment today. Even if you are not an "objectivists" it pays to contribute to gathering some data to weed out poorly engineering products of which, there are many. Electronic design and building of audio equipment has become much easier today, allowing so many unqualified people to get in the business and building potentially unsafe and non-performant equipment. It is important for data to show such poor practices.

At the same time, there are also superbly designed equipment and they deserve standing out from the crowd and dust of all the other gear.

Also of interest is the proliferation of so many audio tweaks including many for digital and computer based audio. Previous assumption has been that what they do is not "measureable." Our record so far shows that we can easily measure their contributions if any exists. Indeed we have found a number of cases where these products actually injected noise and distortion into audio path where non existed before!

I set out originally to purchase and measure equipment myself. Alas, the budget required is massive. I will continue to contribute out of my own pocket to purchase gear but no sense in spending my limited dollars on what some of you may already own.

For convenience sake, the program likely works best for small and lighter gear where shipping and transport is easy. That rules out speakers, large amplifiers, etc, leaving devices that can be shipped reasonably for $20 to $30. In many cases I am willing to pay out of my own pocket to return the gear. So the only cost to you would be shipping to me.

This program has been informally working in the last few months and very well. I have measured and published a number of reviews and measurements with loaned equipment.

If you are interested in participating, all you have to do is "start a conversation with me" by clicking on my name/avatar and we can work out the logistics. Please note that in most cases I need to make the time to measure things so you will be without the gear for a week or two. Possibly more. But we can coordinate that in the prior arrangement. If it is equipment of high interest, I can literally turn around the view in a day or two.

Also, there is some risk of gear getting lost, damaged, etc. The type of products we are talking about is quite robust in this regard, but it can still happen. I pay for some insurance when I ship things back to at least recover some of the cost should the post office screw it up. So far we have not had any issues.

So let's join hands and work together to create a large and useful library of objective, reliable and repeatable data for users to make good decisions in purchasing audio equipment, and to guide manufacturers to build better products.

Speaking of manufacturers, I am more than happy to see them participate too and indeed a number have. I make no assurance whatsoever of happy outcome should you loan me the equipment. What I can promise is supporting you in troubleshooting problems that are revealed in my testing and review.

New Member

I have the Audio-gd NFB-11.28 lying around since I replaced the amp with the Audio-gd NFB-11.38. I'm curious how both of them measure, but I'd have to send them in one at a time, starting with the Audio-gd NFB-11.38.

Founder/Admin

I have the Audio-gd NFB-11.28 lying around since I replaced the amp with the Audio-gd NFB-11.38. I'm curious how both of them measure, but I'd have to send them in one at a time, starting with the Audio-gd NFB-11.38.